United Way’s ‘Day of Caring’ project unites at BYU

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LaVell Edwards Stadium hosted approximately 1,200 people who came together  Thursday morning for the annual Day of Caring service project.  The Day or Caring project was established in 1992 with  the idea of encouraging service opportunities in local communities.  The United Way of Utah County produces the Day of Caring Service project every year with more than 140 businesses, schools, local government and nonprofit organizations as a network of resources. The Day of Caring service projects helps both families in need and nonprofit organizations.

Brenna Cox United Way Communication Manger helped with the organization for this service project. Cox said more than 40 organizations come for the project, including BYU, UVU, Xactware, Utah Community Credit Union and many more.

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BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson and UVU President Matthew Holland help cook pancakes for volunteers at Utah County's annual Day of Caring Thursday morning. More than 1,200 volunteers came and dispersed around the county to do service projects.
“We have over 200 volunteers coming from BYU this year,” Cox said.

 

 

Of the volunteers from BYU, many came from faculty and students. Some of the faculty members have volunteered at the  Day of Caring for more than 10 years and they said they felt this was for a good cause but for most this was a brand new experience.

Nick Romano and Joel Vallet, both students working for BYU Campus, said  they were excited to work with people outside of BYU in their intended professions.

“We are getting to meet other people that are actually inside of my professional field,” Ramano said.

Vallet agreed this was an ideal opportunity.

“We get a really good look at what our futures are going to be like,” Vallet said.

Each different group that came to the service project was assigned a specific area to do service in. The service projects covered area from Payson to Pleasant Grove with aid to schools, residents, city parks, community centers and nonprofit organizations such as The Boys and Girls Club.

Camden Bird, a BYU student, was able to participate in the Day of Caring service project.

“This is a good opportunity to serve on the front lines,” Bird said.

The service project started at 7:30 a.m. with the volunteers recieving a United Way T-shirt, a large breakfast and after a short meeting the different groups headed out to their assigned areas to help in the different projects.

“Day of Caring is a big impact in a small amount of time,” Cox said. “It is a really neat feeling to be a part of this.”

 

 

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